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Definition of dirty trick in English:

dirty trick

noun

‘So was it a crime, a dirty trick, a slip of the tongue, or none of the above?’

‘Clocking is the oldest dirty trick in the book, and though it is illegal to knowingly sell a clocked motor, it is perfectly legal to advertise and carry out ‘mileage adjustments’.’

‘Here, you have the Republican Party's most beloved Vietnam veteran saying publicly, with no holds barred and within the same news cycle that this is a dirty trick and that they president should disavow any knowledge of it.’

‘When Deakin himself died, less than a year later, and Bacon had to identify the body, he appreciated that it was the photographer's final joke: ‘The last dirty trick he played on me,’ he said.’

‘For those familiar with Colson's good works and charitable contributions, the review reads like a dirty trick or, in the words of the review, a ‘smear job.’’

‘Keel admitted he knew his wife was pulling a political dirty trick and tried hard to rehab his own image within both the campaign and the media.’

‘The critics said that there was no reason to believe the unsigned memo originated with Republicans and that there was considerable reason to suspect a Democratic dirty trick.’

‘And the fact that he says it was a dirty trick to spread this - this at the last minute, indicates that he thinks it's embarrassing, it was something shameful, it was something he tried to hide.’

‘One presumes that the pledge of confidentiality binding Novak also gags these reporters, preventing them from pursuing the big story of who leaked, who played the dirty trick, or who may have broken federal law.’

‘It's ludicrous to assume that we did this… It's a political dirty trick.’

‘Circumstantially, it seems extremely likely that it was produced by Democrats as a political dirty trick.’

‘It isn't a dirty trick to challenge petitions or how they were gathered.’

‘It wasn't until later in the day that I saw the sweaty, goggle-eyed faces of the weather forecasters on the television and realised that somebody, somewhere, was playing a dirty trick on me.’

‘So what I've been hearing in the last week, and it remains to be seen, maybe this was all a Republican dirty trick.’

‘Everyone agrees that it's all a dirty trick by the New York Times, and they should have had ‘all the facts’ before they put this on the front page.’

‘The parking ticket is a dirty trick played by my political opponents, and the mismatched socks were a staff error.’

‘While the creation of the ‘talking points memo’ didn't turn out to be a Democratic dirty trick, the media's treatment of the memo was misleading at best.’

‘The first day could even be called something of a dirty trick.’

‘The riot was a dirty trick which was pulled off through the use of deception, and Bloggergate is the same thing.’

1.1dirty tricksUnderhand political or commercial activity designed to discredit an opponent.

‘We as the electorate, have the ability to turn party political dirty tricks in to cold hard cash.’

‘It has a long and notorious history of surveillance, harassment and dirty tricks directed against left-wing political activists and organisations.’

‘I hope this is not the start of a dirty tricks campaign by my opponents.’

‘He says, ‘This settlement demonstrates there was a dirty tricks campaign mounted against me and other prominent opponents of the war.’’

‘Over the next few months, a sustained campaign of dirty tricks was set in motion to create precisely those circumstances.’

‘It was accused of dirty tricks and unfair intervention to secure his victory in the provincial presidential election last fall.’

‘Are they enjoying watching the US media being discredited by propaganda and dirty tricks one by one?’

‘He is supposedly a self-made millionaire, but it becomes apparent that he did not achieve his wealth without dirty tricks and criminal activities.’

‘This loophole opens the door to covert action and dirty tricks.’

‘Even Nader's liberal criticisms were beyond the pale, and the Democrats waged a concerted campaign of dirty tricks and frivolous lawsuits to bar him from the ballot in dozens of states and drain his campaign of resources.’

‘Initially the pickets were very optimistic that the dispute could be resolved quickly in the face of the embarrassing exposure of the employer's dirty tricks.’

‘Even though negative ads are often effective, many people consider them to be little more than political dirty tricks.’

‘Michelle Stewart from Kinning Park nursery says, ‘Despite all the dirty tricks from the council we are standing firm.’’

‘These safeguards were put in place in the aftermath of a documented history of systematic spying, infiltration and dirty tricks by police agencies and the FBI.’

‘This highlights the need to investigate smears posing as ‘investigative journalism’, which in this case proved to be a campaign by the media and government, with dirty tricks courtesy of the security services.’

‘A historical exposé of any key industry will uncover exploitation and dirty tricks.’

‘The media by now were concentrating on the alleged dirty tricks of the two parties over the broadcast and the parties found it difficult to get the media to report anything else.’

‘They concluded that they had to adopt extra-parliamentary means - the methods of political conspiracy, dirty tricks and usurpation - to obtain their ends.’